Suchergebnisse

Termites have a tight interaction with their social parasitic Corotocini beetles. This association is thought to be mainly host-specific, despite some host-switch events. By analyzing the taxonomic partition between species and genera of Corotocini, we propose the hypothesis that the main driver of the diversity of these termitophiles is coevolution.

Two distinct Pleistocene assemblages from SE Santiago Island are comparable to modern analogues elsewhere in the Cape Verde Islands. A low-diversity Siderastrea radians assemblage lived atop basalt knobs surrounded by sand on a slope below a cliff. A Millepora alcicornis–Megabalanus azoricus assemblage occupied the cliff. The latter was a typical rocky-shore assemblage from a high-energy setting belowthe tidal zone.Bioerosion structures in basalt produced by Circolites kotoncensis and Gastrochaenolites isp. also occur there. Despite extensive studies on local limestone deposits in 1832 and 1836, lack of exposure prevented Darwin from seeing these fossils. ; Funding for fieldwork on Santiago Island in June 2011 was provided under grant CGL2010-15372-BTE from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation to project leader Eduardo Mayoral (University of Huelva). Financial support to A. Santos came from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Technology (Juan de la Cierva subprogram, Ref: JCI-2008-2431). Additional support by the Junta de Andalucia (Spanish government) to the Research Group RNM276 is also acknowledged. Partial funding to J. Ledesma-Vazquez on this project came from the Programma Integral de Fortalecimiento Institucional 2010. We thank Christopher K. Pham, Department of Oceanography and Fisheries, University of the Azores, Portugal, for help with identification of the fossil barnacles and Ricardo Ramalho, Institut fur Geophysik, Westphalishe-Wilhelms Universitat, Germany, for discussions about bioerosion by sea urchins on basalt surfaces.